The European school project on alcohol and other drugs (ESPAD) also showed Slovenian students scoring slightly above average on the three alcohol-related variables, on past-30-days cigarette use and on cannabis use at any point in their lives.

Slovenia was above the average for all 40 countries on five of the eight key variables studied and very close to the average on the other three, according to a press release from the Ljubljana UKC hospital, the Slovenian partner in the project.

The most noticeable feature is the relatively high proportion of Slovenian students reporting experience of inhalants at 20%, compared with the ESPAD average of 9%. The percentage for Slovenia rose by 4 percentage points on the previous survey in 2007.

The ESPAD survey has been conducted every four years since 1995, expanding to 40 countries in 2011. The target group are secondary school students who turn 16 in the year of the survey. In Slovenia, the results are based on interviews with 3,186 students born in 1995 (1,561 boys and 1,625 girls).

The proportion of students reporting use of inhalants increased in 15 countries compared with 2007, while the percentage of those reporting regular use of cannabis rose in 11 countries and the volume of alcohol on the last drinking day rose in 10 countries.

Slovenia is among the countries recording increase in students reporting binge drinking in the past 30 days, which rose from 51% in 2007 to 53% in 2011. The average for all countries in the survey was 39% in the latest survey.